“A key safeguard of citizens’ rights in the criminal justice system is the adversarial nature of the criminal trial, where the defense and prosecution each advocates for its own interests. But what happens when that adversarial relationship collapses and a defense attorney advances the prosecution’s argument, rather than the one his client asks him to present?

On January 17, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in McCoy v. Louisiana, a case that will determine whether the law allows a defense attorney to concede a defendant’s guilt to the jury over the defendant’s explicit objections. As a student of the U.S. Constitution, I believe the answer is ‘no.’”